Four-year-old found hidden handgun in block of flats

A boy of four found a handgun wrapped in plastic bags near his home, a court heard.

The child pointed out the weapon to his mother as she threw rubbish down a bin chute in their block of flats.

She called police before fleeing the west London estate with her three young children in July last year.

Alaadine Mohammed, 20, who lived in Braemar House, Maida Vale, was being sentenced today at Southwark crown court after admitting he concealed the bag, which contained a modified handgun and four bullets.

Mohammed said he thought it contained drugs, but prosecutors insisted he must have known it was a gun by its weight and shape.

The construction student told the court a man he refused to name had asked him to hide the package.

"He used to come to my building and we would smoke cannabis," he said. "The bag was just supposed to be there a little while."

Mohammed has admitted possessing a prohibited firearm and ammunition without a firearm certificate.